It Was Cement To Be - Weather Holds for BCITO Trades Day

Friday 30th June 2017

A frosty start lifted to reveal a clear blue sky and fine weather for BCITO's Trade Day this year


Zach White looking like a professional on site
Zach White looking like a professional on site

The Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) held their third annual Trades Day promoting the construction industry to secondary school students across Dunedin. What started out as the worst frost of winter so far eventually lifted and revealed a beautiful sunny winters day for the tour around Dunedin in which students visited five construction sites to gain insight into what being a tradie actually means. 

Students from Otago Boys, Bayfield, John McGlashan, Kaikorai Valley and most excitingly - Otago Girls and Queens - had the amazing opportunity to talk to tradies face to face about what the construction industry is like and have a try of the different tasks involved with each career. This was the first year that women had been involved with Dunedin's Trades Day and it was exciting to have them along to experience what has traditionally been a male-dominated industry. Currently only 5% of trade staff are women. 

Miss Rapson took 10 of our Year 11 McGlashan students along to experience the trades. The hope is that we are targeting students who are interested in the trades before they select their course for Year 12 and 13 when they begin to refine their subjects. Students had the opportunity to 'try before they buy' at this event to see if trades might really be something they might be interested in. From here they can choose the subjects that will help them get into this industry - including applying for the Gateway programme which has a work experience component. 

The students were split into groups of a mix of students from different schools and had a great day getting their hands dirty doing various jobs such as brick and block laying, prepping timber in a joinery factory, plastering, even putting up wallpaper! There was some fierce competition between Otago Boys and JMC at the brick and block laying site, needless to say, the JMC crew came out on top in the end with the straightest column! BCITO's Trade Day was a huge success and we look forward to offering the experience again to Year 11 students in 2018. 

For those students who are interested in the trades or finding out more about Gateway, we would like to invite you along to the Gateway Information Seminar in Term 3 at course selection evening. This will be held 22nd August at 7pm in the ELC. 

It's tougher than it looks! Brick and block laying
Zach White looking like a professional on site
Competition time - Otago Boys vs JMC at block laying. Which was better?
Students from BCITO Trade Day gather with Neville from Resene to thank him for his insight into the trades
Ruaidhri Brosnan gets a lesson on plastering
Ruaidhri Brosnan gets to try  it out for himself
A beautiful sunny day for the BCITO Trades Day
Zack Matthews getting the mud ready
Students listening to a joinery apprentice talk about his time with Wood Solutions
BCITO Trades Day - Foreman talking to students about the plastering trade
Ruaidhri Brosnan looking like a pro on the building site
Zack Matthews doing a great job of laying the mud for the blocks
Safety first! Zach White has all the right gear
Zach White has a go with the machines at Wood Solutions
Zach White supervising Ruaidhri Brosnan doing some brick and block laying
Ready to go - an Otago Boys student looking quite at home in the joinery factory